It's been a while since I posted anything on this blog. First there was the pressure of work and then the summer weather was gorgeous and I needed to rest after an intense year of teaching. So I left my desk for the great outdoors - St Anne's on Sea, Morecambe and the local park - where I relaxed and read books unrelated to counselling and mental health. Or so I thought, but as one of my ace students pointed out, Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test, Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier and Syvia Plath's The Bell Jar are all psychology related. Plath's novel, by the way, is not only brilliant but as compelling a description of major depression and post traumatic stress as I have ever encountered.
So, away from my desk, I stopped blogging, tweeting, scooping and all those other social media verbs and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. But now I'm back in the saddle, and like John Wayne in The Searchers, I'm going to hunt down some ideas and present them in future blogs for my own enjoyment and yours too. That might be the first time I have addressed 'the reader' directly (her name's Amanda).
Farewell for now, I hope you all had a pleasant summer and if any of my new students are visiting this site, welcome aboard!
Welcome back. I chuckled at your book choices! When I got away from it earlier this year I too found my choice of novels actually crossed over a lot into my work. It's a vocation, right? Particularly Aldous Huxley's The Island, an eloquent argument for the benefits of psychotherapy if ever I read one. Also The Reader - deeply philosophical.
ReplyDeleteI read The Psychopath Test recently, whilst on holiday(!). Found it a little meandering but interesting enough, fascinating at times. Must try The Bell Jar.
Thanks for addressing the reader :-)
LOL ... yes, it sure is a vocation Amanda. I gave you a name check because if you hadn't mentioned my blog in a Tweet it might have been another few months before anything appeared here. I highly recommend the Bell Jar but (Trigger Warning) might be on the cover, like the one you added to the Guardian article. Love and best wishes, JohnM
ReplyDeleteHi John, Good to see you back! I missed your blogs in my inbox. Haven't been on twitter much either over the last few months. Hope to be back tweeting with you soon! I remember 'The Bell Jar' well, it's incredibly powerful, as is her poetry. All the best to you :-)
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